(FORTUNE Magazine) – I'M FROM ZIMBABWE, WHERE I WORKED AS A police officer, did some ranching, and was a private salvage diver before arriving in Texas in 1987. Now I dive five days a week and get paid 9 cents a ball to collect them out of lakes. I generally average 3,300 golf balls a day, but my record is 14,250. The balls are refurbished for places like Wal-Mart. People envision diving into a swimming pool, but it's swampy with zero visibility--I mean pitch black. So I get regular tetanus shots, and I do it all by feel. If it's round, I bag it; if it moves, I let it go in a hurry. I once found a body in a car, and I've been bitten by water moccasins. Another time I ran into a 13-foot gator--she whipped her tail and shattered my mask.Working 60-odd golf courses around Dallas, plus Oklahoma and Florida, I made about $60,000 last year. But from 1994 to 2001 I made $100,000. So when I see a bad golfer, I'll toss him a free ball now and then, hoping he'll come back. -- Interview by Abrahm Lustgarten